TEAR DOWN

I got the project rolling by tearing out most of the interior.  I was going to post a photo of the torn out material, but a friend dropped by the hangar and thought he might have a use for some of the stuff.

This is the pilot's side wall of the cargo area.  Somebody, many years ago, did me the favor of painting the entire interior of the airplane, under the plastic, a flat black.  It is ugly and will mean hours of work to remove, but there is zero corrosion in this airplane.  Which is somewhat unusual in a 45-year old bird.

The passenger's side door will present a couple of challenges.  Most obvious is the aerial photo window. I think a small round aluminum panel painted flat black on the window side and secured in place with sheet metal screws will serve.

Not quite so obvious is a missing panel.  There is supposed to be a panel that covers the door latch handle mechanism.  It shows clearly in the photo of the pilot's side door...

I doubt very much that I will be able to find that panel anywhere for anything like a reasonable price. It will be a bit tricky to fabricate a copy, but that will be the task.  This door is one interior part of the airplane that was not painted. Fortunately, no corrosion here.

While I am undertaking this task I am going to replace the window and door seals.  They are all getting pretty sorry looking.

While I was thinking things out one of the items I was worried about was the speaker.  I pictured a chincy speaker in a bracket that would force me to either spend a lot time coming up with something more aesthetic, or removing the speaker.  I was pleased to find this rather nice little unit lurking behind the headliner. The beige color is actually just dust.  The entire enclosure is black.

Totally removing the speaker would not have been a great loss. Back when this airplane was built pilots rarely flew with headsets. Which is why so many older pilots are a bit hard of hearing. The cabin of your typical piston engine single is a very noisy place. Everybody uses headsets now so the speaker just kind of hangs up there and talks to itself.  I use mine a little bit. I was taught not to don the headset until after engine start in case somebody outside the airplane had cause to yell some kind of warning. The squawk of the speaker lets me know the radio has come alive.

Speaking of the headliner...it was in much worse condition than I thought.  When I gave it a tug whole sections of it just kind of disintegrated.

The cargo area floor is showing the signs of use and abuse. Again, though ugly, that black paint prevented corrosion. I am thinking that the flaking, also visible in the photo of the speaker, has occurred because whoever applied this paint did not do a thorough surface prep.  Which means I will need to.

I need to order a hatfull of tinnerman nuts.  Cessna loves the things and many of them have been through so many annual inspections that they need replacing.  The inspection covers visible here (there are a total of 13 in the cabin!!) are all secured with screws and tinnerman nuts.

The floor of the cargo area gets carpet, but it still needs to be stripped and at least primed. The far left of the photo is the end of the cargo area and you are looking into the tail cone.

Speaking of the tail cone, here it is now. The object with the large round holes is the first bulkhead, heading aft, after the cargo area.  Previously it was covered by a large plastic panel. I will be fabricating an aluminum panel for this location.

This photo clearly shows the construction technique used by many small (and large) aircraft. It is called "stressed skin" and consists of the bulkheads, visible in the photo, and the skin all riveted together so that the skin is actually a part of the structure.

The straight wires heading aft are the control wires for the elevators and rudder. The "snakey" wires are electrical. The ones on the right (of the photo) power the navigation light and the strobe. The silver box is the control box for the strobe. The wire snaking across the cargo area floor is the antenna wire for the ELT. It will simply lie under the carpet, as it has been doing.

The original plastic cover panel was secured to the bulkhead with sheet metal screws through the tabs that are pretty obvious. I will use the tabs to secure the new aluminum panel. This one will be easy.

Speaking of tabs, and brackets...

Here is a bracket that is intended to secure the plastic side panel.  It needs to come out.  It is sharing a rivet with the aluminum trim that holds the rear window in place. I am not sure how I am going to handle this one, or it's numerous brothers and sisters.

This is another bracket with which I must deal. It shares two rivets with a longeron along the side of the cargo area. So I can't just drill out the rivets.  I will need to be creative.

This mess constitutes the mounting brackets and some of the innards of the overhead console. Aside from the cleaning that needs to be done, the big challenge is how the plastic console mounts. It is held in by sheet metal screws through the bracket at the front (left of the photo) and the "ears" on the metal box towards the rear. The brackets are set up so that the console mounts about 1/2" away from the aluminum ceiling in order to make room for the headliner.

A creative solution is needed there as well.

And here is the passenger's side wing root, and a mystery.  The kind of gray-ish rectangle is a document holder. The only purpose for which would be to hold the various documents the FAA requires be carried in the airplane and readily visible.  This area was previously covered by the headliner. So it would appear that Juliet flew around for some previous period of time without a headliner.

The wires hanging down go to the overhead console. If I choose to keep the console, and I may have to, it may be an airworthiness item, I have to figure out an attractive way to run those wires.


This last photo is the floor pan under the seats. Lots of ugly black paint, but no corrosion. Visible in the photo are three of the four seat rails (two for each seat). Just out of sight on the bottom of the photo is the left side pilot's seat rail.  It is new, having failed the inspection required by an Airworthiness Directive of a few year's ago.

Sometime into this project I realized I had passed that "oh shoot" (or words to that affect) moment when you realize that no matter how difficult or expensive the project becomes, you are committed to the process, there is no turning back.

Contrary to appearances, the airplane is completely airworthy.  I can slide the seats back in, clip in the seat belts (I have not yet removed the shoulder harnesses) and she is ready to fly. I will keep her that way as long as possible as I go about stripping the paint.

Eventually I will need to remove the doors and mask the windows, at which point she will be done flying until the project is complete.  I am really hoping to have this project complete before the ideal flying weather shows up.  Wish me luck.